Samsung WB5500: 26x megazoom digicamBy
Mike Tomkins(Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 01:30 EDT)Samsung has quietly unveiled a new megazoom digital camera in certain European and Asian markets, although the Samsung WB5500 has not been announced in the American market as of this writing.

With a 26x optical zoom lens, the Samsung WB5500 has even more telephoto reach than the existing 24x HZ25W model, which was the company's first megazoom digicam. Known as the Samsung VLUU WB5500 in some markets, the new model's body design seems to be little changed from that of the HZ25W, beyond the new lens. Maximum aperture varies from f/2.8 - f/5.0 across the zoom range, and 35mm-equivalent telephoto gives it a 26x focal lengths are from a useful 26mm wide angle to a very powerful 676mm telephoto. The HZ25W's twelve megapixel image sensor has been replaced with a slightly higher-res 13.8 megapixel chip, yielding images up to a maximum of 4,288 x 3,216 pixels. As you'd expect with such a powerful zoom, the WB5500 also offers sensor-shift image stabilization. For framing and reviewing images, there's a 0.24-inch electronic viewfinder plus a 3.0-inch LCD display, both with 230,000 dot resolution.

Most other features of the Samsung WB5500 are similar to its sibling, the HZ25W. European availability is slated for May 2010, with pricing of around €429 -- roughly equivalent to US$525 (ignoring exchange rate fluctuations, taxes and duties.)